Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the "Father of Western Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields with which it had...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionScientist
art pain mean
There are some arts which to those that possess them are painful, but to those that use them are helpful, a common good to laymen, but to those that practise them grievous. Of such arts there is one which the Greeks call medicine. For the medical man sees terrible sights, touches unpleasant things, and the misfortunes of others bring a harvest of sorrows that are peculiarly his; but the sick by means of the art rid themselves of the worst of evils, disease, suffering, pain and death.
fashion mean discovery
But medicine has long had all its means to hand, and has discovered both a principle and a method, through which the discoveries made during a long period are many and excellent, while full discovery will be made, if the inquirer be competent, conduct his researches with knowledge of the discoveries already made, and make them his starting-point. But anyone who, casting aside and rejecting all these means, attempts to conduct research in any other way or after another fashion, and asserts that he has found out anything, is and has been victim of deception.
art experience judgment life opportunity
Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.
disease
It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.
faults taking
Keep a watch also on the faults of the patients, which often make them lie about the taking of things prescribed.
health matter time
Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
benefit consider derive health human learn man
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
disease desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures cures
For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable.
medicine fire doe
What medicines do not heal, the lance will; what the lance does not heal, fire will.
wine men healthy
Wine is an appropriate article for mankind, both for the healthy body and for the ailing man.
love art men
For where there is love of man, there is also love of the art.
pain health blood
The human body contains blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. These are the things that make up its constitution and cause its pain and health. Health is primarily that state in which these constituent substances are in the correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quantity, and are well mixed.
knowledge ignorance opinion
Science begets knowledge; opinion, ignorance.
medicine giving abortion
I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.